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The Denial Of Suffering Is, In Fact A Better Definition Of Illness Than Its Acceptance.
-M. Scott Peck
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The Denial Of Suffering

M. Scott Peck
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The Denial Of Suffering Is, In Fact A Better Definition Of Illness Than Its Acceptance.

Understanding the Quote: "the denial of suffering is, in fact a better definition of illness..."

This quote by M. Scott Peck reflects deeply on the theme of acceptance. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Acceptance, Suffering, Denial, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how M. Scott Peck interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About M. Scott Peck

M. Scott Peck is celebrated for insightful thoughts on acceptance and suffering. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Acceptance
Suffering
Denial
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Worship Is Yet Another Paradox Of The Religious Life: It Is Simultaneously The Greatest Duty And The Greatest Pleasure Of Faith. Worship Is The Act Of Truly Loving God. Believe In This Brilliant Being, This Magnificent "higher Power," Who Not Only Created Us But Nurtures Us With Care And Intelligence Beyond Our Imagination, And Obviously We Are Called To Worship Him.
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I Can Remember Years Ago Sitting On My Bed And Suddenly Thinking, "i Am God."
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The Denial Of Suffering Is, In Fact A Better Definition Of Illness Than Its Acceptance.
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When Any Institution Becomes Large And Compartmentalized, With Departments And Subdepartments, Then The Conscience Of The Institution Will Often Become So Fragmented And Diluted As To Be Virtually Nonexistent, And The Organization Becomes Inherently Evil.
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Listen To Your Child Enough And You Will Come To Realize That He Or She Is Quite An Extraordinary Individual. And The More Extraordinary You Realize Your Child To Be The More You Will Be Willing To Listen. And The More You Will Learn.
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Two
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What Does A Life Of Total Dedication To Truth Mean? It Means, First Of All, A Life Of Continuous And Never-ending Stringent Self-examination. We Know The World Only Through Our Relationship To It. Therefore, To Know The World, We Must Not Only Examine It But We Must Simultaneously Examine The Examiner.
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Discipline Is The Basic Set Of Tools We Require To Solve Life’s Problems. Without Discipline We Can Solve Nothing. With Only Some Discipline We Can Solve Only Some Problems. With Total Discipline We Can Solve All Problems.
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Light
Shining
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Responsibility
Thinking
Choices
We Must Be Willing To Fail And To Appreciate The Truth That Often "life Is Not A Problem To Be Solved, But A Mystery To Be Lived.
Life
Motivational
Change
A Life Of Total Dedication To The Truth Also Means A Life Of Willingness To Be Personally Challenged.
Mean
Dedication
Willingness
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Inspirational
Doubt
There Is No Virtue Inherent In Un-constructive Suffering.
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Virtue
Constructive
We Are Most Often In The Dark When We Are The Most Certain, And The Most Enlightened When We Are The Most Confused.
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Confused
Dark
Courage Is Not The Absence Of Fear; It Is The Making Of Action In Spite Of Fear.
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Courage
Fear
As I Grow Through Love, So Grows My Joy, Ever More Present, Ever More Constant.
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Constant
Grows
Falling In Love Is Not An Act Of Will. It Is Not A Conscious Choice. No Matter How Open To Or Eager For It We May Be, The Experience May Still Elude Us. Contrarily, The Experience May Capture Us At Times When We Are Definitely Not Seeking It, When It Is Inconvenient And Undesirable.
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Love Is
Elude Us
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Action
Contemplation
Genuine Love Not Only Respects The Individuality Of The Other But Actually Cultivates It, Even At The Risk Of Separation Or Loss. The Ultimate Goal Of Life Remains The Spiritual Growth Of The Individual, The Solitary Journey To Peaks That Can Be Climbed Only Alone.
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Journey
Share Our Similarities, Celebrate Our Differences.
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Acceptance
Differences
The Truth Is That Our Finest Moments Are Most Likely To Occur When We Are Feeling Deeply Uncomfortable, Unhappy, Or Unfulfilled. For It Is Only In Such Moments, Propelled By Our Discomfort, That We Are Likely To Step Out Of Our Ruts And Start Searching For Different Ways Or Truer Answers.
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Adversity
Cutting
Problem
If Your Goal Is To Avoid Pain And Escape Suffering, I Would Not Advise You To Seek Higher Levels Of Consciousness Or Spiritual Evolution.
Spiritual
Pain
Goal
The Act Of Loving Is An Act Of Self-evolution Even When The Purpose Of The Act Is Someone Else's Growth.
Self
Growth
Purpose
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Grace
Growth
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Fall
Community
Answers
An Unconscious, Gentle Process Whereby People Who Want To Be Loving Attempt To Be So By Telling Little White Lies, By Withholding Some Of The Truth About Themselves And Their Feelings In Order To Avoid Conflict. Pseudocommunity Is Conflict-avoiding; True Community Is Conflict-resolving.
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Order
White
Discipline Is Wisdom And Vice Versa.
Inspirational
Discipline
Vices
Consciousness Is The Foundation Of All Thinking; And Thinking Is The Foundation Of All Consciousness.
Thinking
Foundation
Consciousness
Often The Most Loving Thing We Can Do When A Friend Is In Pain Is To Share The Pain-to Be There Even When We Have Nothing To Offer Except Our Presence And Even When Being There Is Painful To Ourselves.
Pain
Compassion
Being There
When You Consider Yourself Valuable You Will Take Care Of Yourself In All Ways That Are Necessary.
Care
Way
Valuable
We Skim Over The Surface Thoughtlessly. But We Must Acknowledge That Thinking Well Is A Time-consuming Process. We Can't Expect Instant Results. We Have To Slow Down A Bit, And Take The Time To Contemplate, Meditate, And Even Pray. It Is The Only Route To A More Meaningful And Efficient Existence.
Meaningful
Thinking
Praying
Mental Health Is An Ongoing Process Of Dedication To Reality At All Costs
Reality
Dedication
Cost
I Have Learned Nothing In Twenty Years That Would Suggest That Evil People Can Be Rapidly Influenced By Any Means Other Than Raw Power. They Do Not Respond, At Least In The Short Run, To Either Gentle Kindness Or Any Form Of Spiritual Persuasion With Which I Am Familiar.
Running
Spiritual
Kindness
Whenever We Seek To Avoid The Responsibility For Our Own Behavior, We Do So By Attempting To Give That Responsibility To Some Other Individual Or Organization Or Entity. But This Means We Then Give Away Our Power To That Entity.
Mean
Responsibility
Organization
The Path To Holiness Lies Through Questioning Everything.
Lying
Grace
Holiness
Problems Call Forth Our Courage And Our Wisdom; Indeed, They Create Our Courage And Wisdom.
Problem
Road Less Traveled
Cutting Edge
Nirvana Or Lasting Enlightenment Or True Spiritual Growth Can Be Achieved Only Through Persistent Exercise Of Real Love.
Love
Inspiring
Spiritual
To Be Free People We Must Assume Total Responsibility For Ourselves, But In Doing So Must Possess The Capacity To Reject Responsibility That Is Not Truly Ours. To Be Organized And Efficient, To Live Wisely, We Must Daily Delay Gratification And Keep An Eye On The Future; Yet To Live Joyously We Must Also Possess The Capacity, When It Is Not Destructive, To Live In The Present And Act Spontaneously. In Other Words, Discipline Itself Must Be Disciplined. The Type Of Discipline Required To Discipline Discipline Is What I Call Balancing.
Eye
Responsibility
Discipline
I Define Love Thus: The Will To Extend One's Self For The Purpose Of Nurturing One's Own Or Another's Spiritual Growth.
Love
Relationship
Spiritual
Falling In Love Is Not An Extension Of One's Limits Or Boundaries; It Is A Partial And Temporary Collapse Of Them.
Love
Fall
Limits
The Principal Form That The Work Of Love Takes Is Attention. When We Love Another Person We Give Him Or Her Our Attention; We Attend To That Person's Growth.
Giving
Growth
Attention
A Discussion Becomes Destructive When It Begins To Generate More Heat Than Light.
Light
Heat
Discussion
Some Catholics Have A Concept I Very Much Admire: The Sacrament Of The Present Moment. It Suggests That Every Moment Of Our Lives Is Sacred, And That We Should Make Of Each Moment A Sacrament. Were We To Do This We Would Think Of The Entire World As Diffused With Holiness. Wherever We Might Be Would Be A Holy Place For Us, And We Would See The Holy, Even Sainthood, In Everyone We Encounter.
Life
Thinking
Catholic
If We Seek To Be Loved - If We Expect To Be Loved - This Cannot Be Accomplished; We Will Be Dependent And Grasping Not Genuinely Loving.
Grasping
Accomplished
Dependent
In And Through Community Lies The Salvation Of The World.
Lying
Community
World
Since The Primary Motive Of The Evil Is Disguise, One Of The Places Evil People Are Most Likely To Be Found Is Within The Church. What Better Way To Conceal One's Evil From Oneself As Well As From Others Than To Be A Deacon Or Some Other Highly Visible Form Of Christian Within Our Culture
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Evil People
Church
Genuine Love Is Volitional Rather Than Emotional. The Person Who Truely Loves Does So Because Of A Decision To Love. This Person Has Made A Commitment To Be Loving Whether Or Not The Loving Feeling Is Present. ...conversely, It Is Not Only Possible But Necessary For A Loving Person To Avoid Acting On Feelings Of Love.
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Love Is
Emotional
Life Is Difficult. This Is A Great Truth, One Of The Greatest Truths. It Is A Great Truth Because Once We Truly See This Truth, We Transcend It. Once We Truly Know That Life Is Difficult-once We Truly Understand And Accept It-then Life Is No Longer Difficult. Because Once It Is Accepted, The Fact That Life Is Difficult No Longer Matters.
Spiritual
Encouragement
Truth
Life Is A Series Of Problems. Do We Want To Moan About Them Or Solve Them?
Motivational
Track
Want
The Quickest Way To Change Your Attitude Toward Pain Is To Accept The Fact That Everything That Happens To Us Has Been Designed For Our Spiritual Growth.
Change
Spiritual
Attitude
Although The Act Of Nurturing Another's Spiritual Growth Has The Effect Of Nurturing One's Own, A Major Characteristic Of Genuine Love Is That The Distinction Between Oneself And The Other Is Always Maintained And Preserved.
Love
Spiritual
Growth
The Giving Up Of Personality Traits, Well-established Patterns Of Behavior, Ideologies, And Even Whole Life Styles...these Are Major Forms Of Giving Up That Are Required If One Is To Travel Very Far On The Journey Of Life.
Life
Giving Up
Journey
Love Always Requires Courage And Involves Risk.
Risk
Love Always
If We Know Exactly Where We're Going, Exactly How To Get There, And Exactly What We'll See Along The Way, We Won't Learn Anything.
Way
Knows
Ifs
Genuine Love Is Volitional Rather Than Emotional.
Love Is
Emotional
Genuine Love
We Know A Great Deal More About The Causes Of Physical Disease Than We Do About The Causes Of Physical Health.
Disease
Causes
Deals
When We Avoid The Legitimate Suffering That Results From Dealing With Problems, We Also Avoid The Growth That Problems Demand From Us.
Spiritual
Growth
Suffering
America's Greatest Sin Is The Refusal To Delay Gratification.
America
Delay
Sin
Real Love Is A Permanently Self-enlarging Experience.
Love
Relationship
Soulmate
Love Is Too Large, Too Deep Ever To Be Truly Understood Or Measured Or Limited Within The Framework Of Words.
Love Is
Framework
Too Deep
We Cannot Solve A Problem By Saying, "it's Not My Problem." We Cannot Solve A Problem By Hoping That Someone Else Will Solve It For Us. I Can Solve A Problem Only When I Say, "this Is My Problem And It's Up To Me To Solve It."
Confusion
Problem
Solve
Since True Listening Involves A Setting Aside Of The Self, It Also Temporarily Involves A Total Acceptance Of The Others. Sensing This Acceptance, The Speaker Will Feel Less And Less Vulnerable, And More And More Inclined To Open Up The Inner Recesses Of His Or Her Mind To The Listener. As This Happens, Speaker And Listener Begin To Appreciate Each Other More And More, And The Dance Of Love Is Begun Again.
Acceptance
Love Is
Listening To Others
The Path Of Spiritual Growth Is A Path Of Lifelong Learning.
Spiritual
Growth
Path
If We Deny Our Anger, Our Pain, Our Ambition, Or Our Goodness, We Will Suffer.
Pain
Ambition
Suffering
Life Is Difficult. This Is A Great Truth, One Of The Greatest Truths. It Is A Great Truth Because Once We Truly See This Truth, We Transcend It.
Life Is
Truth Is
Road Less Traveled
The Overall Purpose Of Human Communication Is - Or Should Be - Reconciliation. It Should Ultimately Serve To Lower Or Remove The Walls Of Misunderstanding Which Unduly Separate Us Human Beings, One From Another.
Wall
Communication
Purpose
If You Are Determined Not To Risk Pain, Then You Must Do Without Many Things: Having Children, Getting Married, The Ecstasy Of Sex, The Hope Of Ambition, Friendship-all That Makes Life Alive, Meaningful And Significant.
Meaningful
Sex
Children
Since [narcissists] Deep Down, Feel Themselves To Be Faultless, It Is Inevitable That When They Are In Conflict With The World They Will Invariably Perceive The Conflict As The World's Fault. Since They Must Deny Their Own Badness, They Must Perceive Others As Bad. They Project Their Own Evil Onto The World. They Never Think Of Themselves As Evil, On The Other Hand, They Consequently See Much Evil In Others.
Thinking
Hands
Evil
Consciousness And Healing To Proceed Very Far Through The Desert, You Must Be Willing To Meet Existential Suffering And Work It Through. In Order To Do This, The Attitude Toward Pain Has To Change. This Happens When We Accept The Fact That Everything That Happens To Us Has Been Designed For Our Spiritual Growth.
Spiritual
Pain
Attitude
True Love Is Not A Feeling By Which We Are Overwhelmed. It Is A Committed, Thoughtful Decision.
Thoughtful
Love Is
Decision
We Cannot Solve Life's Problems Except By Solving Them.
Problem
Solve
If You Wish To Discern Either The Presence Or Absence Of Integrity, You Need To Ask Only One Question. What Is Missing? Has Anything Been Left Out?
Integrity
Missing
Wish
Children Will, In My Dream, Be Taught That Laziness And Narcissism Are At The Very Root Of Human Evil, And Why This Is So. . . . They Will Come To Know That The Natural Tendency Of The Individual In A Group Is To Forfeit His Or Her Ethical Judgment To The Leader, And That This Tendency Should Be Resisted. And They Will Finally See It As Each Individual's Responsibility To Continually Examine Himself Or Herself For Laziness And Narcissism And Then To Purify Themselves Accordingly.
Dream
Children
Responsibility
The Whole Course Of Human History May Depend On A Change Of Heart In One Solitary And Even Humble Individual - For It Is In The Solitary Mind And Soul Of The Individual That The Battle Between Good And Evil Is Waged And Ultimately Won Or Lost.
Change
Integrity
Heart
I've Had All Kinds Of Experiences With God In Terms Of Revelation Through A Still, Small Voice Or Dreams Or Coincidences.
God
Dream
Voice
Although I Was Raised In A Profoundly Secular Home, I Had A Belief, An Awareness Of God, From As Far Back As I Can Remember.
God
Home
Belief
The Feeling Of Being Valuable - 'i Am A Valuable Person'- Is Essential To Mental Health And Is A Cornerstone Of Self-discipline.
Self
Discipline
Feelings
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